May 25/10 10:29 am - Criterium McGill

Making History in La Belle Province: first Canadian collegiate road race organized by McGill University

On May 22nd, the Cycling@McGill Club organized a technical 1.2km criterium on McGill’s MacDonald campus in Montreal’s West Island.

The regular master, junior and senior categories were on the menu, and in addition, 4 collegiate categories were making a 1st-time appearance in Quebec. Three intro riders who had never raced before tackled the course for a total of 20 minutes, and LOVED it! In addition to the intro category, the women 1-3 (6 racers), men 3-4 (17), and men 1-2 (16) categories were also a great success.

Many institutions were represented: McGill of course, Université Laval, Université de Montréal, Concordia, UQAM, Université de Sherbrooke, l’École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), and even Stevens institute of technology (NJ) and Harvard! Also, some CEGEP students were present, including Hugo Houle from Collège Ellis in Quebec city.

We hope that this race will inspire other Quebec universities to create collegiate teams and organize races. We also hope other Canadian institutions will do the same and maybe one day, who knows, we’ll have a collegiate circuit just like in the states, with a national championship and a solid structure to back it up?